This current theme is giving me eye cancer, but I promised an update, so I will just have to endure. Here we go.. NUMBAH TWO:

2. The Wolf Among Us (PC) (2013)

When I posted The Walking Dead earlier, I brought up my love for Telltale, which is probably my favorite company at the moment for making awesome games. As much as I love The Walking Dead, Telltale have put out one title that is even better, and that is The Wolf Among Us. It is a neo-noir/fantasy masterpiece that combines great characters, an interesting plot with a really cool world. Like with The Walking Dead, I don't really want to give too much away, but I will try to describe the setting and plot of the game. Basically it takes place in Manhattan sometime in the 80's (I forgot the exact year), and in the city there is a place called Fabletown, essentially a community of characters from fables and stories. Yes, they are real! You play Bigsby, who is the big bad wolf, and also the sheriff responsible for this community, and trying to hide it from the rest of the world. Some other characters that appear includes Snow White, Beauty and the Beast and Bloody Mary, just to give you an idea of what kind of characters you will encounter. Some of these characters have no problems blending into the human society due to their human look, like Snow White or Beauty for example. But that's just a small part, and others that are creatures or monsters use something called a glamour to disguise themselves as humans. I won't go too much into the rest, but during one regular night of being out on the town, a woman is murdered, and your job is to find out who did it.

This game blew my mind, and even though the fantasy concept might be a turn off to some people, it just totally worked for me. Something like The Walking Dead is easier to get into on a story level, but I feel like this game was even better. Bigsby is an amazing protagonist. He's a tortured soul who sometimes reminds me of Max Payne, a cynical douchebag who makes his own rules and has little to no friends. But as you play him and as you encounter these events and people, his character really changes. He's not a one note character, and he is given plenty of depth over the 5 episodes you can play. Bigsby has a bad reputation among most fables, because he is both a sheriff who upholds the rules and laws, but he is also the big bad wolf, and for those of you who know your fables, that's not a very pleasant character. He is human as standard, but as you come across enemies and pain, the game also has a lot of tension to it. Can you maintain the big bad wolf within you, or simply give into temptation? One thing that I completely loved was that the game does a good job of teasing you what Bigsby is dealing with, and what kind of horror he tries his best to keep locked up inside. You see flashes of his rage and semi-transformations, but they really make you wait for it. And once you finally get to see the big bad wolf in his purest form, it is glorious, and I was nerdgasming like crazy. It's a really well written crime story with a neo-noir and fantasy setting, and what makes it so awesome is how it ramps up. It starts off as any normal crime that you are trying to solve, but as you get further into the episodes and reach the end, hell just rains down. The definition of a slow burn. Everything comes to an epic conclusion, and the game has some of my favorite "scenes" in any game ever. The choices you make determine if you can redeem yourself and get characters to see a different side of you, or if the "dark side" is just too tempting.

I really hope this gets a season 2, because I would want it more than anything.

I hope you get a chance to play it. And here it is, without dragging it out.. number 1:

1. Portal 2 (PC) (2011)

Portal 2 is a first person puzzle/platform game, and the follow-up to Portal. As much as people rave over some of Valve's other franchises like Half-Life or Left 4 Dead (hey, I love those too), Portal is IMO their finest achievement, with Portal 2 being the crown jewel on their trophy shelf. The premise of Portal 2 is simple enough. You wake up at a surprisingly empty facility and you soon get control over a portal gun. You move through this facility with the portal gun being your only help, and you navigate through different rooms that works as puzzles. The portal gun can shoot out two portals, when you enter one, you exit the other. To unlock the door or even reach it, you need to use some clever tactics and utilize the portals. Like the picture I included above, a laser going into one portal and out the other can help with opening a door. Or jumping down from a high point into a portal, and out through a portal on a wall can send you flying thanks to the velocity involved. There's tons of challenging puzzles to get through, and some even come with enemies in the form of small turrets that shoot at you. But unlike Half-Life where the combat is a necessary element and one that is in the forefront of the game, in Portal 2 it is all about puzzle solving and figuring out how to get to the exit door and how to get it to open. And while you're doing this, you're slowly figuring out the purpose of the facility, what is going on and you're not alone. You're accompanied by a small robot called Wheatley, and it makes the journey through the story feel less lonely. There are a few parts where you are separated from him, and those moments feel truly haunting as you're actually on your own.

What makes the game awesome apart from the inventive puzzles and the fun mechanic of the portal gun? The voice acting. Portal 2 has three of the best voice acted characters ever, with GLaDOS returning from the first Portal game. She is the main antagonist of the first game, a psychopathic robot who wants to kill you through hard puzzles, and she has a glorious return in Portal 2. Wheatley (voiced by Stephen Merchant), who I already mentioned is a fun side-kick with some hilarious British comedy, and he makes for one of the best companions in any game that I've played. But the one I love the most is JK Simmons, who does the voice of Cave Johnson, the guy who created the company of the facility. I swear he has some of the funniest quotes I've heard in any game. He appears as a pre-recorded voice that navigates you through a set of puzzles, and he is just the best. It's so well written that you want to navigate further and learn more about his character and his fate, and the further you progress the more you learn about him, as well as the company and what's going on. For those who have played Portal (the original game), some of these things are already known to you by the start of this game. But, the reason I love P2 more than the original is that it has so much more depth, and as well as having GLaDOS returning, it also has the awesome voice work of Stephen Merchant and JK Simmons, as well as a longer and more interesting story, more creative ideas with puzzles and just harder game mechanics.

Portal 2 also comes with a pretty cool multiplayer campaign, which I also recommend.Anyhow, thanks for tuning in!

I haven't really been responding to your posts much at all, but this was a good list. Some stuff I haven't played or even heard of, but plenty of old favourites and modern classics aswell. Can't complain about Portal 2 featuring that high either.

Ok, after delaying this endessly, I'm finally ready to start my list! This is how it's gonna work: I'm gonna start with an honorable mention, the first of out five, and will include one before every tier - one before #20, #10, #5, and #1. These will be normally in the morning (GMT -3), and a normal double update in the evening. Enough talk - let's-a go!

Honorable mention

30Pokemon Stadium2000

I only had 5 games on my N64 (they were fucking expensive here), and this is easily my least favourite. Is it bad, then? Hell no, that's why it's on a honorable mention. I have a special place in my soul for Pokemon. Enjoyed the TV series as a kid, but the games... Those were on another level. This was my first encounter with the Pokemon franchise, and it was love at first play. Building your team, playing tournaments. Playing against friends. Watching your Pokemon make the attacks. It was mind-blowing as a child. It just seemed way realist, or at least, totally immersive. I had zero ideas about types and weaknesses/strenghts, so I lost more battles than won, but... there was something seductive, attracting me to keep playing.I have no memories of winning it, or reaching to the finals of a championship, but it didn't matter. I haven't played in ages, but I'm sure I'd still have lots of fun with it. Just if my old N64 still worked .

If Sonic was Sega's answer to Mario, then Crash Bandicoot was Playstation's. Not only Mario Kart was a hell of a game, but this actually managed to rival it. It's essentially the same as the Mario - there's characters from the series, you throw bombs, use nitro, and other fun crap. It had lots of maps and a great multiplayer. And I *think* it had a kind of campaign, a single-player mode, right? Something that with each race you won, you unlocked doors to new maps and races.

And I should have hated it for being almost a rip-off. Somehow, I loved it.

My N64 was dead at the moment (RIP), but I had a PS1 so what the hell. I guess I was too young to care, or just took it as a replacement for my lovely Mario Kart, but I played it hours upon hours. I don't know what else to say, rather than it was, and still is a ridiculously fun game. One of my fav from my childhood.

24Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 22009

I remember it.

Modern Warfare was a total hit, both in sales and as a game. The intense campaign. The massive multiplayer. The gameplay. It had it all a great FPS could have - now it's regarded as a landmark of the genre.

And then... the announcement of a sequel.

The hype rising - above the clouds. Rumours, trailers, short gameplays at cons. Short campaign? Has the multiplayer be great to make up for it. No, it won't be better than the original. I hope it's as good as the previous one. Wasn't this supposed to be a one-time spin-off? Unnecesarry sequels!The internet was boiling. The preorders went crazy. The media started releasing hype-rising reviews. Praises. Yes, it's as good as the first one. No, it's even better! Game of the Year, everyone. The first Russian leaks, barely playable. And more, driving the internet nuts. Until it was sale day.

And then, it exploded.

People crowded the shops. The stores run out stock. In 24 hours, it had sold 4.2 million copies just in the US and the UK. Five days, and 8 million were playing it online. And it had earned revenue figures of $550 million worldwide. People loved it. It was universally acclaimed, not only as the best game of the year, but as among the top FPS ever. The story was original and deep, the mini-missions were smart, and you couldn't get enough of the multiplayer - few games today can match that online experience.

But then came the controversy.

There is a certain scene where you play as an ultranationalist Russian terrorist at the national airport. And you must kill people. Innocent people. Civilians. This scene was censored in several countries, and was quite polemic, specially in Russia, since the country didn't have an age-tag system for games. But the developers were smart enough to make this part optional, and skipping it wouldn't make you lose any trophies or achievements. Even though, this kind of reinforced the anti-violent-games movements.This, along with the ridiculous success of the game, were enough to collapse the internet - and part of the world.

Although I missed the Gamecube, and got something else instead, I'm always gonna be a Nintendo gamer (after a glorious-PC-master-race gamer, of course). My love started when I received a N64 when I was 4-5 years old. Just 5 games (damn third-world country), but they were enough to blow my little brain. I played thoroughly each of them, and despite spending almost afternoons with the controller on my hands (that shit was huge), there was always something new. Or at least, I never got bored of them.

I guess, because I have no memories of it, that I cried like a baby when it stopped working. And for a time, I was (almost) a normal kid who played with his friends to non-virtual games.

But it wouldn't last for much time.

22REmake2002

I was never a fan of horror games. And still are. But years ago, I gave Resident Evil a chance with RE4. And let's just say that it made me want to play the whole series. From the beginning, of course.

But the first RE on PS1 was... ugly. Crappy acting voice. Awful live-action cutscenes. The tanks controls, more like elephant controls. The mansion felt empty, with little decoration. And how boring was the OST.

But I had heard good things of the Remake, and my PC was powerful enough (just enough), to run it on an emulator. And after some hours of tweaking, updating drivers and DirectX, finding a good ROM in Spanish, blah blah blah, it was the time. It started slow, and some parts with heavy ilumination made Jill look like she was walking on a pool.

But it worked. Oh, it fucking worked. I'd spend entire afternoons going from one extreme of the mansion to another, trying to figure out what to do. And getting killed by zombies. It took me some weeks of getting frustrated and not knowing what to do (and looking for answers on walkthroughs) to finally beat it.

I couldn't believe it. Not that I never expected to finish it, but was rather surprised by another thing. How a Campcom team turned a crappy game into a fucking masterpiece. Even when I replayed it on the Wii port, it still felt magic. A kind of terrifying magic, actually. But still. Magic.

The level design, which makes the player go from one extreme of the mansion to the other after finding a small object or a key, to enter a new room. The limited ammo and ink. Save now, or maybe later? Kill the zombie, or run? It'd have seemed easier to just beat the bastard. But they added something brilliant. If you killed the zombie, when you returned to the room after a long while, it would come alive again, but stronger and faster. The only way to avoid this was either by blowing its head, or burning the corpse. And guess what? There's not enough gasoline to burn all the zombies in the game.

The bosses, the amazing variety of enemies, the huge map. Bonus and extra missions that could get you more ammo or even a Magnum. How Jill's inventory is larger than Chris', but he's the strongest. How both of them were balanced. How the team added more puzzles, and the great Lisa subplot. It is all, from a game design point of view, superb. Brilliant. This is how to make a remake.

I think the only weak point of the game is the story. It's way deeper than the original, but it still feels a bit clichéd or predictable at times. But I guess it has more to do with me being totally familiar with it.

And even up to this day, this game looks fantastic. A new HD remaster was released earlier this year, and although I haven't tried it yet, go and get it. It brings this fantastic game to the new generation, in full, glorious High Definition.

Never played Crash Racing (because I never owned a PS and don't consider Crash Bandicoot a thing and because of the principle of it being a blatant copy), but Mario Kart 64 is excellent. The only newer one I've played is Double Dash, which is also very good, but I don't think it's as good as the 64 one.

CTR may be a copy, but the single player campaign (getting all gems, relics, tokens...) makes it the better game imo.

I don't recall much of it, but I surely had a blast playing it.

Honorable mention

29Pepsiman1999

Yeah, this game - the 90s were weird times. It's the most shameless publicity ever put in a game. But you know what? It was a hell of fun.

And fucking difficult .

On each level you must run through a city and reach to the end, where a vending machine waits for you with some (duh) fresh Pepsi. But there's lots of obstacles, like pedestrians, crazy drivers, trucks, construction zones with holes. And the game is on rails, so it ain't that easy - it requires lots of coordination, something that up to this day, I still lack. One of the reasons I prefer singe-player games.

But sometimes it was hilarious to see your character running away from a giant Pepsi can, or chasing a van, which seemed to have an endless supply of IKEA furniture. No wonder they broke so easily.

Never liked the drink, but still played it a lot as a child. But it wasn't years later when I realized how ridiculous this title was. I'd still replay it though, for the old times' sake. Just if my PSOne had never overheated... yeah, I have no luck with consoles .

Being an arcade-style game, Star Soldier's objective is achieving a high score. It often makes use of hidden destructible tiles that offer bonus points when shot, but may occasionally power-up the player's ship instead, granting faster attacks, an extended range, or a powerful super-attack. Bonus points will also be awarded for defeating sequences of enemies without receiving damage, or defeating mini bosses before they have a chance to attack.

There are 3 ships to choose at the beginning, and each one has different attacks and strategies. The Green one has the widest range of them all, but each ray isn't too powerful. On the other hand, the Blue one (my fav), has quite a limited scope, but does way more damage. And the default Red, is somewhere in between.

But that doesn't explain why I spent countless hours on it. It looks like a normal space alien-killing game right? So what's so special about it?

The atmosphere.

Few times have I been more immersed in the game I was playing, totally absorbed in it, that time would go pass through me, but I'd stay there, playing. It had the perfect difficulty balance, meaning the first levels were almost a tutorial, whereas the last ones made a Swans album seem pleasant. And my immersion wouldn't have happened without the gorgeous electronic, futuristic OST. I got to relisten it some weeks ago, and I can safely say it's still an amazing work.

As a whole, it made me feel I was in space, riding a spaceship, killing aliens, and defeating the bad bosses. It made me feel mighty, powerful. Even when it was frustrating, I'd go and replay it over and over until I won that level. If a game can encourage me to do so without any help or tutorials, that's sign of a clever design.

Something many modern games lack.

20Assassin's Creed 22009

Ok, I know the series became way commercial after this one, and now we have at least one game of the series per year, and I stopped playing and following it after Revelations (which ironically raised more questions than the answers it delivered). But it's here where the magic happened.

Confession time: I enjoyed the first AC. Yeah, it was repetitive. And sometimes the story didn't make much sense. But I enjoyed enough to give the second game a chance.

Will never regret of it.

Ubisoft did what few expected: took a crappy game, got rid of the repetitive gameplay but kept the key elements, like the hidden blade and the parkour, and improved it all. And then, took it to the next level with an impressive brand new plot, filled with lovely characters (Ezio ftw), and some historic ones like Leonardo DaVinci. Clever missions, which required you to be silent most of the time, because killing 30 guards ain't easy. New movements, new weapons.

More places. I knew Italy was wonderful, but the level of detail here is not only breathtaking - it's nearly insane for a sequel of a not-so-well received game. You can visit all the famous buildings and cathedral. Climb to the top, find a collectible item, update your map, and jump. Need some money? Hire some whores and distract the guards that are keeping an eye on some treasure. Need help to beat the bad guy? Hire a few mercenaries to help you fight.

There are lots of things to do here, and although it may not have as much freedom as GTA V or Skyrim, it will always be my fav sandbox. Period.

ACII was a great example of a fundamentally sound game making all the right improvements.

Logged

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